


Ferris Wheel

by emotionalcello



Series: Emocel's Fictober 2019 [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Fictober, Fictober 2019, M/M, Magic, Mystery, but like not realy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-01-08 06:16:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21231155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emotionalcello/pseuds/emotionalcello
Summary: Dick spotted bloodstains by the Ferris wheel that trails from the bottom cabin to the very top one. What he found inside is a boy can't be older than 15, bleeding down from the stomach, and even so, he refuses to come down from the Cabin.“I want to see the stars, one last time, just... one last time.” The boy still muses upon the sky, mesmerized.Dick looks up, and the starless sky that’s tinted red from light pollution.Then, with great sorrow and resignation, the boy whimpers, “You ruin that from me.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy?

Dick hears metal clashing and creaking from the pathway towards the entrance area. It could be something, or it could be nothing. In this city of Bludhaven, anything can happen. Maybe it’s just a bird, or trespassing kids – that one is often –, and the worst ones will be if someone plants a bomb, that won’t be the first too.

Just to be safe, Dick turns on his radio and held it a finger away from his lips, “Come in, Wally.”

“This is Wally.”

“I hear a voice near the Ferris wheel, can you cover my grounds for me? I’m going to check it out.”

“Okay, be careful blue wing.”

“You too, speedy.”

The Ferris wheel is not the highest one in town, but it’s always busy during the weekends and holiday season. As he walks down the path, one of the trash bin tips over and spilled across the granite bricks.

Dick leaves that worry later when he sees some sort of stain on the metal structures. The contraption is painted all over, from the carriages to the metal structures in blues and yellows. Going in closer with the help of his flashlight, he sees an odd stain starting from the entrance platform that trails to the support tower and ends at the cabin on top. Red stains.

Dick’s first guess is that someone climbed it to the top. It’s possible, he has seen the maintenance guy climbs it over. Looking closer to the stain on the carriage right on in front of the platform, it seems like blood. He leans closer and sniffs the stain, it smells like iron, but it could’ve been the metal. Still, with the bizarre stain, there’s someone up there. With the probability that it’s blood, that person could be injured. Despite being a disappointingly small Ferris wheel, it’s still a high climb.

Whoever it is at the top cabin is either hiding from something or already dead. Either way, it’s his job to check it out.

“Come in Wally, I think see blood on the Ferris wheel.”

The radio buzzes and clears, “Do you need me for back up?”

Dick thinks it over and follows his gut.

“No, but can you look around the borders? He’s pouring down heavy, maybe he came from the haunted house.”

“Copy that Blue Jay.” Wally signed off.

Dick put his radio back on the holster hanging by the belt. He tips the end of the flashlight up to where the carriage where the bloodstain ends.

“Someone there?” Dick shouts out.

No reply.

“Hello? I can see your blood all over this thing, are you injured?”

Still nothing.

“Want me to call 911?”

Not even a creak on the carriage.

Dick grips the sets of keys hanging on the other side of his hip, grabbing the one for Ferris wheel’s control board and enter the room on the side of the platform.

“I’m going to turn the Ferris wheel on!” Dick warned to probably nothing.

Lights glare from the ride. Pink, yellow and green shine from the rows of lightbulbs on the metal crossmember, three lightbulbs on the hub of the wheel, fairy lights on the side of the cabins, and more lightbulbs on the legs of the support tower. The song came up next, your basic ‘carnival music’ that they got on youtube.

The wheel starts turning, the brightly colored carriages turn until the cabin where the blood trail ends are in the bottom.

The cabin is a small windowless four-seater, sets of two facing each other, with a metal railing that reaches your chest as the only safety precaution.

Dick flash his lights inside the bloody cabin, expecting the worst, and what’s inside exceed his worst.

There’s a pool of blood at the bottom of the cabin, pouring from the seat, where a boy lays limp across the two-seaters. Damp dark hair sticks on half his face, barely showing it. Dick’s attention goes right towards the damp part of the hoodie where the boy’s bloody hands are clutching, the source of all the red.

“Oh my god, how did you even get there.”

His hands reach out to the boy, and not even halfway towards him, the boy grunts and shows his eyes.

“Don’t touch me,” the boy hisses, glints of wary in his eyes like a feral kitten.

“You’re injured an-”

His mouth freeze open when he –a boy that couldn’t be older than 15– hold a gun to his face.

“Put... put me... back up.” The boy says between panting breath. His eyes a pale blue, even though his blood pools at the bottom of the bright orange carriage, he still has the energy to glare at Dick.

“Kid, if you look down, you can see how much blood you’re losing. You need medical help,” he presses firmly, but he’s scared out of his life for the boy in front of him. He doesn’t know how much this boy bleed before he steps into the carriage, but he might not make it just judging by the pool of blood Dick sees.

“I fucking know that, why do you think I’m pressing on my wounds?” The boy shouts, flailing the gun. “Just... Just let me... Put me back up now!” he growls, taking off the safety of his gun. “Please,” he continues after seeing that Dick is unfazed.

The boy doesn’t hold out the gun too long. His arm gave up and the gun falls to the pool of his blood.

Dick takes the gun in a heartbeat, throwing it away to the bushes then scoops the boy in his arms. In a few wide strides, he carries the boy down the platform’s stairs and lays him down on the brick pathway. The kid is wearing a red hoodie, and a darker red is coming from the side of his stomach, right where the boy’s hand resides.

“Put me... put me back,” he croaks, “Put me back and get me up there.”

“Nope, it’s not your time yet kid.” Dick scrunch up the kid’s hoodie and press on the wound along with the boy’s hand. Dick’s other hand reaches out to his radio, smearing the matte black surface with a thin red hue.

“Wally, I need you to call the ambulance.”

“Are you hurt?” Wally sounds worried.

“No, there’s a kid on the Ferris wheel, he’s bleeding a lot.”

“Okay, right, okay I-I’ll bring first aid kit.”

“Call the ambulance first, he’s rapidly losing blood.”

The other side sounds clamorous and clatter, Wally’s breathing hard like he’s running, “Aah shit, okay, I’ll call ‘em. I’ll be there after bringing some kit, put pressure on it!” and he abruptly hangs up.

A hand grabbed his collar, the same hand that couldn’t even hold the gun straight.

“No, no hospital,” The boy hisses.

“Yes hospital, you’re dying!” his heart starts racing, trying to focus on pressing the wound to calm himself. His hands began to feel cold, trembling when he realized the weight of the situation.

“I just want to be up there,” the boy looks at the top of the Ferris wheel. Colorful lights shine on his adolescent face.

Only then Dick could see his face in detail. Through the colorful lights, his eyes stay blue. There are tear stains down his pale face. Blue-ish bruise peeks on the neckline. Eyes empty as he stares through matter. The boy’s hand no longer presses on the wound, both lay limp between his body. Slowly, he breathes. Breathing out one long sigh, a tear escaped from his left eye.

Upon seeing the barely teen boy, the feeling that resides is fear.

“What’s your name?” Dick asked, leaning close, hoping to get the boy’s attention. Hoping to ignite some kind of light behind his eyes.

It’s futile. “I want to see the stars, one last time, just... one last time.” The boy still muses upon the sky, mesmerized.

Dick looks up, and the starless sky that’s tinted red from light pollution.

Then, with great sorrow and resignation, the boy whimpers, “You ruin that from me.”

Dick’s body stiffens and rigid when electricity strikes his nerves. Pain concentrated from the exposed part of his neck. His body twitched into a spastic mess on the ground. His vision caught the kid standing above him, throwing a taser he recognizes his before he finally passed out.

+++++++

“I told you before, there’s nothing there.”

“How could it not be there!” Dick exclaimed frustratingly, as he keeps clicking the rewind button, replaying the same footage over and over again.

It’s been 30 minutes since Dick came into the surveillance room, which is a small room with three split screens. The only one in charge of the screens is Barbara and some other guy Dick doesn’t know covers dayshift.

There are only a few minutes till the opening time, and Dick is still in his blood-stained uniform. A few dots on his chest, and the ones on his hands he had washed out. Dick has been in this room for 30 minutes and their shift had finished 30 minutes ago.

“I hate to ask, but...” Barbara doesn’t bother to finish, Dick knows what she meant.

“This isn’t the doppelganger incident, I’m not making this up!” Dick Rebukes.

“Okay, okay,” Barbara resigned, not without skepticism.

“I swear, he was running towards behind the Ferris wheel, but!” Dick rewinds the footage shooting towards the Ferris wheel entrance when he replayed it. The footage displays the bottom half of the ride, the platform to step in and the first half of the waiting line. Nothing changes in the footage, not even the grass by the corner.

“Where are the footage where I came in and turn the Ferris wheel on?” Dick points aggressively towards the screen. It buzzes and glitz in every loud tap. “And when I take the boy from the carriage? The Ferris wheel isn’t even on the entire time in this footage!”

“Maybe it’s a glitch, you knew boss’ too cheap to buy better stuff. I’ll write a note to the day-shifters to take a look at it.”

Huffing defeatedly, Dick finally sits back, making the chair creaks, “What am I going to do now? The boy was badly hurt, look at my shirt! There’s blood everywhere!”

“The paramedics say they’ll get back to us for the DNA result. I gave them my number, all we can do is wait.”

“Fine,” Dick exhaled his frustration and stands up abruptly. When looks at Barbara, his annoyance goes down the drain, “Thank you for waiting on me.”

Barbara quirks up her pale pink lips, “That’s why I’m here Dickie. C’mon, we had a long day, let’s get back home.”

++++

The DNA test result came. Barbara told Dick as soon as graveyard shift starts.

“Unregistered?” Dick almost shouts, his voice echo’s through the empty park.

“Uh-huh, the kid is not in the system,” Barbara adds.

“Is it about yesterday’s Ferris wheel ghost boy?” Wally chirps in.

“He’s not a ghost! He’s real, I carried his bloody body in my arms!” Dick tensed on the neck, veins showing under the skin.

“Okay! I’m just jokin’. It’s what the day shifters called it.”

Rubbing his face, Dick breathed out the rest of his frustration, “I just want to know if that kid is alright. That’s all.”

Wally and Barbara share a knowing look to each other, then back to their best friend with a pitying smile.

“Let’s hope he is,” Barbara comforted.

“I bet he is if he got the strength to stand up and tase you, he’ll be fine. Heck, maybe he’ll be back for revenge when you stop him from getting a free ride,” Wally joked.

That one makes Dick smile. He rubs the tenseness on the back of his neck off and looks up from staring at his shoes.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

After their night shift is done and Dick was waiting for Wally by the entrance gate. After taking two steps outside of the locker room, Barbara pulled Wally to the side, whispering.

“Yesterday, did you see the Ferris wheel turned on?”

Wally smiled nervously, “I dunno babs, I was around the walls when Dick called in.”

“This is serious Wally,” Barbara warned. “The Ferris wheel can be seen from your location, and I don’t think the surveillance system is glitchy. I can see your footage just alright when the Ferris wheel allegedly turned on because I didn’t see it. So, did you see it turned on or not.”

Sighing, Wally looks down at his tennis shoes, “No. Not once in the entire night.”


	2. Chapter 2

A few days after the incident, Dick finally forgets about it. But then, the universe says: No.

Dick comes to the amusement park a bit earlier for his shift when his second job ended early. 

“This deadbeat job doesn’t deserve you coming this early.” Stephanie walks into the staff room, making a beeline to the coffee maker.

“Oof, on coffee already?” Dick eyes how the blond pours watery coffee to the brim of her pink mug and finishes it in three big impressive gulps.

“Yup, as soon as I pop my daughter out,” Steph raises her second fill of coffee and drinks slower this time, “Don’t judge, I need this coffee because she woke me up at 3 am.”

“No judgment here,” Dick raises his hands, “Why don’t you go home now?”

“I still need to close up.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll do it.”

Stephanie’s blue eyes sparkle as she smiles from ear to ear, “Oh God, really?”

It’s the first time Dick ever saw the new mother smile from these past few weeks, it’s contagious, “Yes, now go home.”

“You’re the man!” She flings her body towards Dick’s already open arms. “Thank you so much, I’m gonna make you my brownie tomorrow!” she loops her arms around Dick’s chest and squeezes all the air out of his lungs.

“I-I’ll be waiting for that,” Dick whimpers out of his crushed ribs. When Stephanie said she did weight lifting as a workout routine, she was not joking.

He informs the day shifters that he’s already in to cover for Stephanie, which used to be his job before he took the night shift. His job is to check all the booths and the rides thoroughly, making sure there’s no visitor left in the park except for the food and toy vendors tidying up. 

As he walks down the paved pathway, he sees one of the rides are still on. The Ferris wheel stopped, the music doesn’t play, but all the lights are on, they even seem brighter than before. Maybe maintenance placed new lights.

The operator should’ve already turned it off, but Dick doesn’t think too much of it. He has the keys, he can operate it, so he’ll do it.

As he was walking down the path, the waiting line for the Ferris wheel came into view, along with a woman standing stiff like a statue in front of the ride. She’s looking up to the top of the Ferris wheel. Her frame is frail and slightly hunched. Her long short-sleeved blue sundress worn over a thin knitted yellow cardigan seems offseason for the cold fall. Her ponytail wilts down to the nape of her neck, a tangled mess. A few strands of her salt and pepper hair escape from the worn pink scrunchie as if she slept with her hair tied and never re-did them when she woke up. 

When Dick looks up to where the woman is looking, even though there’s nothing there, all he remembers is the bleeding boy that he never saw again.

“Ma’am?” Dick called after he put the memory to the corner of his mind for now, but the woman doesn’t heed his calls. “Ma’am, we’re closing. Are you lost?”

When the woman doesn’t reply again, Dick steps in front of her and sees her face that seems hopeful. Her cloudy blue eyes reflect the colorful lights of the Ferris wheel. Pink, yellow and green lights shining on her pale face. 

Cracked thin lips parted and her yellowing teeth peek out in between. The bags under her eyes and sagging skin are signs of either her age or that life hasn’t been kind to her.

Dick obstructs her line by waving his hand fairly close in front of her eyes, then finally, the woman looks at him.

“Oh, I... I’m sorry, did... I didn’t hear you,” She looks ashamed. Bony shoulders hunched as her wrinkled hands clench a lock of her bangs.

Something breaks in Dick’s chest, looking at the poor woman that seems lost and lonely, “It’s alright ma’am, we’re closing, I’ll lead you to the exit.”

Even after saying so, the woman doesn’t move, eyes still up to the top cabin.

“What are you looking at, ma’am?”

“My son, I thought I saw him there.”

Dick’s heart skipped a beat, “Your son? Black hair, blue eyes, looks like he’s scowling all the time, red hoodie?”

“Yes, that’s him! Have you seen him?” her eyes widen and so do Dick’s.

“He was at the top of the Ferris wheel, badly hurt. Is he missing?” he asked with a tone just as hopeful as the boy’s mother.

“Yes,” the woman cries, lips deeply frown and covered by her trembling hands. “Is he... Is he alright? Do you know where he is?”

“We don’t know ma’am. He ran off before we could help him.”

“Oh... I-I need to go home, he might come home.” She visibly deflates, but not Dick, he has hope, he has proof. That boy exists, and he’s going to find out what happened to him through her.

Dick offers his arms, “Let me guide you to the exit.”

The way her face stares into the concrete below is as if her consciousness is disconnected from her body, but she manages to loop her arms around Dick’s.

It only takes a few steps for Dick to feel something’s wrong. One second he was holding her cold arm, and gradually the feeling slipped away. 

When he looks beside him, there’s no one there, and he doesn’t know when the old lady had slipped away and left.

++++

It’s a chilly morning when Dick stood only with a wife beater on, staring into his locker. The wife-beater can’t solely stop him from feeling the chilling cold, but a bottle of pills in his locker distracts him from it. He keeps the bottle in his locker even though he convinced himself that he doesn’t need it. Just in case, he thought. 

Now, after everything that’s happened, he questions his decision.

After pondering back and forth, he pops the tiny pill on the back of his tongue and it goes down like a boulder.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been skipping those,” Barbara chirped as she went around the locker behind Dick’s.

“It’s not nice to snoop Barbara,” Dick remarked casually while swallowing a massive amount of anger. He quickly changes into his casual clothes, not wanting to stay here with his anger any longer.

“Just looking out for you, Dick,” Barbara sounded apologetic, that alone melts his anger, just a little bit.

Dick sighed, feeling terrible for almost snapping, “I know, but I swear it’s not because of this. I really saw her. She was his mother.”

“I want to believe you Dick, Wally too. But we didn’t see what you saw.”

“I don’t need you to believe me, just stop treating me like I’m crazy.”

“We don’t.”

“Well, that’s how it feels.”

“Dick-”

Dick reaches the door with a few long strides and slams it behind him.

++++++

They didn’t stay mad at each other for too long. That’s what best friends do: worry, fight, apologize, then go back to their bullshit. 

A few days passed since Dick met the lady who admitted to be the boy’s mother. This time, the days didn’t let Dick forget. 

His mind-numbing job became something he looks forward to, in the sense that it became obsessive. Even when the amusement park is closed, he keeps wishing he would meet that boy again. He purposely comes in early with an excuse to cover Stephanie’s day shift, hoping to meet the boy’s mother.

Despite the range of his friend’s reaction heading towards skeptical, Dick doesn’t care. Wishing upon a ghost that he probably made up in his mind is crazy, he knows that, and he doesn’t need a constant reminder of it.

Maybe he’s seeing a ghost, he thought, and just before he gets to believe it, the boy appears.

It’s 10 PM, closing time, and he was about to turn off the Ferris wheel’s lights when he saw the boy sitting on the stairs of the platform. No longer a boy and no longer in a bleeding red hoodie. He’s wearing a mustard shirt under his murky green bomber jacket paired with worn blue jeans and sneakers. The day Dick carried him out of one of the cabins was weeks ago, but the boy’s face is different now. Older.

“You.” Dick breathed, uncertain that he’s seeing the same boy.

His eyes are the same blue, wearing the same scowl, but his expression is no longer empty. “You remembered me,” the boy says, amused, sounding way deeper than he remembered.

Then the boy stood up. Though Dick is taller, the boy isn’t so far shorter. He was sure that he lifted the boy, but he’s not sure whether he’d be able to carry the teenager in front of him. Doubt rises, even though the teen recognizes him.

“You... you’re the one I carried from the top of the cabin, right?” Dick says, incredulous of what he’s seeing.

“Yeah, and I tased you,” The boy smirked, a spark of life on his face. Reddish cheeks, glinting eyes, a smile. He’s okay. He doesn’t even think about the tasing.

“What’s your name?” Dick asks, finally he’s able to.

The boy stares down shyly at his shoes, and looks up with his deep teal eyes, “Jason.”

“Jason,” Dick echoed. He can’t believe he finally meets this boy.

To think that he was a ghost. His friends can suck it. Jason is real, and he’s okay. Dick spreads his arms and wraps Jason in a tight hug, who’s stiffened by the contact. His heart is beating a million miles an hour, but it rapidly slows down the longer he squeezes the teen that he thought had died. Dick buries his face in the crook of the boy’s neck, and a tear escapes when he closes his eyes.

He remembered the way Jason looked so empty, devoid of life when he was still breathing. Something about the way he looked was so terrifying for Dick. Obsessively, always looking for this boy he barely knew, just to know if he’s okay, and he is, Dick finally knows that.

A pair of hands landed on Dick’s back, not pulling as tight as Dick does to Jason, but Jason laid his head on Dick’s shoulder. They spent a minute just hugging when Dick finally steps back.

“I’m sorry for that,” Dick says first.

Jason shrugged and then asked, “Why do you care so much anyway?”

“You were there to die, weren’t you?”

Jason pursed his lips, looking away, not answering, he doesn’t need to. Dick knows.

“Let’s just say the way you looked then reminded me of someone.” In a breath, an image pops in his head, then a series of them follow. Red hair pours to the floor from the edge of her bed. Laying limp and peaceful. Head pulled to the side as if sleeping. He couldn’t have imagined that she out of all people would be in that state. In one frame of memories when they were together, she looked far away into the distance, just like Jason did. Dick didn’t see it, brushed it off, and blamed himself for the way she passed.

“Sorry, you had to see me like that.” Jason’s voice snaps him out of trance.

“It’s fine,” Dick says in the same meekness, “as long as you’re fine now, I can rest easy.”

“Don’t tell me you were restless for all this time just because of me,” Jason smirks, tipping his chin up while folding his arms.

“Yeah, I was,” Dick admits without care, catching Jason off guard.

“Oh, huh,” Jason mumbled, then his eyes landed on Dick’s name tag on his left chest. “That’s your name? Please tell me that’s a prank,” he chuckled.

“Nope, I’m Dick Grayson. My parents are old fashioned.”

“Yeah, I’ll say.” Then Jason looks a bit nervous, shifting his eyes everywhere, “Look I hate owing people, and I’m tight on money, so all I can do is treat you dinner.”

“Oh c’mon, you don’t owe me anything, just doing my job.”

“Please.”

The gentle plea from his deep voice shoots Dick right through the heart. The boy looked so... well, he’s not actually a boy now is he? A teenager? He has to be, there’s no way he’s more than 18 even though he looks like it. Maybe they can get to know each other more. 

There’s a lot that Jason holds back and –not to feel nosy– there’s something about him that Dick just couldn’t let go. He doesn’t need to know Jason’s story if he doesn’t want to tell, but Dick feels like he needs to. His soul called for it.

Though Dick knows now that he’s not crazy and Jason exists, but why does it feel like no one knows Jason existed but him? All this time, Dick is the only sole proof that Jason existed.

“You’re here, right?” Dick asked, still feeling like he could be dreaming.

“What is it with you?” Jason punched him on the shoulder, hard.

“Ouch!” 

“Feel that? I’m real.”

“Yeah... you are,” Dick smiled as he rubbed his shoulder, “I’m on a night shift though, can you do mornings?”

“That’s great actually, I’m on night shifts too,” Jason perked up, “Uh, 10 AM tomorrow? Let’s meet up at Dinah’s, you know the place?”

“By the pier right?”

“Yeah, there’s only one Dinah in all Bludhaven.”

“Okay, great then.”

Jason then nods with a slight pull on the corner of his lips and waves, slowly stepping back.

“Oh wait!” Dick stopped, “You mom came the other day, she was looking for you.”

Jason knits his eyebrows together, “That can’t be right, my mom died a long time ago.”

Jason looked at him funny and Dick felt like his stomach dropped. “Oh, never mind then, maybe she was talking about someone else.”

Jason doesn’t seem convinced, but shrugs anyway, “Alright then, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Right, see you.”

Dick spent his shift skipping.

He waits at Dinah’s from 10 AM sharp till 3 PM. 

Jason never came.


	3. Chapter 3

Dick doesn’t tell anyone that he met Jason again. He already knows how they’ll react anyway.

Whoever Jason is, there’s a probability that he ditched him. Of course, Dick didn’t come to that conclusion lightly. All he got was his first name, and he thought it was all he needed. He looked for him after his shift, a teenager named Jason around the area. It staggers him how many Jasons there were in the whole city. In the end, Dick gave up after looking for weeks and came out empty-handed.

Another possibility –and possibly the worst one for Dick– is that Jason ghosted him. As time goes on, he’s starting to believe that one more.

Every day, from the start of his shift till the end, he lingers around the Ferris wheel longer than the other rides. Hoping he’ll catch Jason snooping in again and demand an explanation. But his hope dies with time as the days go on with no signs of that teenager with sad teal eyes. 

In the end, Dick has to let go of Jason and the story he kept.

“You’re going home?” Barbara stops halfway through the door after seeing Dick still in front of his locker.

“Yeah, I’m staying till opening, I’m meeting with Steph.”

“Oh, okay, tell her I say hi!”

“I will.” Dick waves as Barbara closes the door behind her, leaving Dick alone in the staff room.

That’s a lie, Dick is not meeting Steph.

After changing into his washed jeans, and covered his light blue hoodie with a worn black jean jacket, Dick strolls around the park. His feet take him to the Ferris wheel yet again. He sits by the stairs where Jason did when they last saw each other.

Blame him all you want for still hoping, but he can’t stop himself doing so, even though he had tried persistently. This place pulls him. He would be on the way home and found himself here, waiting for something even himself isn’t sure of. Just like right now. He waits and wanders as nothing happens. As usual. 

The sky gradually gains it’s brightness from the black of night to daybreak indigo. The brightest point in the sky is just behind the tip of the merry go round’s roof. A flock of birds flew towards it.

Or they should’ve.

There’re black specks in the sky, like blobs on your vision or dirt on your glasses. Dick blinks a couple of times to get rid of it, but it stays. When he stood up and shakes his head, his heart thumps. It’s not dirt in his eyes. His eyes feel fine, and the dirt doesn’t follow his vision, it sticks in one place in the sky, with clouds that don’t move.

It’s a bird, pausing in mid-air. Turning around, he sees the skinny hornbeam tree beside the queue area leaning extremely sideways and froze that way, as if blown by the icy wind that made them that way. A leaf right beside the tree stops in mid-air. Curious, he touched it, but he can’t move it. A leaf in the wind that sticks like a rock stuck on a surface with power glue.

Could he be dreaming? Or has he lost his mind completely?

He doesn’t get to answer that himself when a blinding light glares from the Ferris wheel. Dick whips around to face the light source.

The Ferris wheel isn’t turned on, but a screen of blinding white light fills inside the circle structure. There’s no other sound but Dick’s breath and static electricity coming from the electric sparks jolting around the metal tubing. Nothing else moves but Dick, the lights, and the dark human silhouette inside the lights that seem to be approaching closer. It’s so bizarre that the gears in his mind just stop trying to figure out why this is happening. It’s nothing Dick has ever seen before. Maybe on the TV, but he’s not on TV, is he?

The silhouette makes itself more prominent and clearer and as that person steps out of the light and walks down the booth, Dick can’t believe his eyes and who his mind is suggesting.

The man has some bulk on his body, maturity in his demeanor, but the familiarity of his features struck Dick with one person in mind, Jason.

The last time Dick saw him, he was a teenager. Shy and boyish as he asked him out for dinner. How could that boy turn into this man that looks like reaching his 40’s with a tired look of a century-year-old man. 

Cleanly shaven, his jaws look sharper from the teenager Jason. Teal eyes set even deeper into his socket, topped with thick and coarse eyebrows that knit close to each other and set low on the brow ridge. A sharper look in his eyes, yet way kinder. 

Before, Jason reached a little under Dick’s height, now Jason is gaining clear inches above him. There’s a stark awkward streak of white on his bangs which slightly curls and flails as he walks. His bomber jacket looks like a worn uniform with logos patched on the right breast and upper sleeves. His red shirt underneath looks as dark as congealed blood, paired with black cargo pants, gun garters snug on his thighs and black tactical boots.

He’s either here to fight or his style is just that edgy. Either way, Dick has a projectile taser and fast hands.

The man approaches Dick with that knowing smirk like they’re old friends, but the sentiment is not returned. 

“You cause me a lot of hassle,” is this Jason’s first sentence, not giving the best impression of Dick, who takes full offense of that.

“Me?” Dick feels his neck tensed raising his voice that high. “_You _cause me a lot of hassle. Who are you? And what the fuck is that!” Dick waved at the Ferris wheel that still has a screen of glowing light inside it. There is no way no one sees this bright light, but then again, if Dick sees it, probably no one else does.

“This is a portal,” Jason points his thumbs at the light behind him. “And I’m Jason Todd, I’m here to fix the things you’ve been seeing.”

“Wait... What I’ve been seeing?” Dick repeated with a shriek, feeling constipated at what he had to digest. “You meant Jason? And your mom? But... you’re Jason too!”

“Uh huh, you’ve been seeing multiple versions of Jasons for other universes that happen to-”

“Wait, stop, please,” Dick felt like his head got pounded with that information. It’s terrible when his friends don’t believe him, but a person that popped out of the light finally agreeing with him doesn’t feel that good either.

“Oh God, I’m really going crazy, aren’t I? Babs was right, fudge my schtick every one of them is right. I should’ve stayed on meds,” Dick whispered to himself.

“Quit that, you’re not crazy,” Jason groaned, “I know you’re taking medication on this universe too, so you better stop that. You’re not having an episode.”

“How did you even know... I... whatever,” Dick huffed defeatedly.

“Chin up pretty boy, after I do what I came here to do, you’ll be just fine.”

“And what is it that you do, other Jason?” Dick crossed his arms, glaring at Jason with a combination of pissed off and mentally tired.

“I erase anomalies. I’m here to erase all the proof of the other universe ever repeated here. I’ve already deleted the security footage. Destroying the blood sample is a difficult one, no thanks to you for getting many people involved,” Jason narrowed his eyes at Dick, and Dick doesn’t feel a tinge of guilt. “And now, finally, you.”

Dick feels little goosebumps on his neck, “You’re gonna kill me?”

“No,” Jason raises his voice and grimaces offendedly, “I need to erase the memory where you’ve met the Jasons and this,” Jason waved to himself and the Ferris wheel.

“What, no!” Dick holds his head as if his hand can protect him from any mind-erasing devices, “I... I want to meet my universe you... We agreed to have dinner together.”

Jason visibly cringes, “That didn’t happen. That’s another you with another me, that didn’t happen to you, you just feel that it happens to you because... things got fucked up!” Jason just gave up halfway of explaining, and honestly, Dick doesn’t want to know either.

“But-But I felt it happened to me! I feel the weight of his body when I carried him out one of the cabin bleeding, and your mom holding onto me and... I-” Dick choked up on his own breath. Feeling tears threatening to spill at the things Jason implied. 

“I know Dick, it’s all confusing, and I believe you. You’re not crazy,” Jason calmed, his voice sounds deep and soothing. “All of that isn’t supposed to happen. Things... happened, it’s difficult to explain.”

“Then why me? Why am I the only one that sees it?” 

“We don’t know, and this is actually something special we’ve never encountered before,” Jason seems annoyingly excited, “You’re the only one in this universe that can see it for how it is.”

Dick groans, “Whatever, so what are you going to do now?”

“So, I’m here to fix the fucked up things that happen to you. But this will involve you, so you get to choose how I do it.

Dick doesn’t answer, doesn’t even look at Jason, and gave him his silent approval.

“You can see and experience the universe being broken, we need someone like that in our department.”

It takes a few seconds of Jason's pointed look before Dick finally catches on, “You’re offering me your job? Me? Stopping time and making Ferris wheels glow?” Dick says incredulously with an uneasy smile.

“Yeah, it’s not an easy job, but just putting it out there, we’ve been keeping an eye on you and after some consideration, we’d like to take you in to watch over this universe.”

Dick doesn’t expect Jason replying to his sarcastic question seriously, but now Dick considers it seriously. 

Heh, as if.

“And if I say no?”

“I’d have to erase the anomaly to fix it, meaning you won’t remember it ever happening.”

Dick feels his heart drop, “Wait... I won’t remember meeting this universe Jason?”

“You never met this universe Jason. It’s all been other universe’s Jasons.” Jason repeated, starting to sound impatient.

“Does that mean I won’t remember meeting the.... the Jasons?” Dick rephrased, the question leaving a bitter taste in his mouth for agreeing with this Jason.

“Nope.”

“No!”

“You’ve been telling me that a lot.”

“Because I don’t agree with you, or your suggestion, or any of this!” Dick waves his hands wildly around him, “It’s... it’s too much to take.”

“Well, not trying to be inconsiderate but you need to choose now,” Jason huffed impatiently, tapping his boots.

“I don’t want to lose my memory! I-I want to meet you. Wait, I mean, I want to meet this universe you.”

Jason’s face shifts into gloom, “You won’t meet this universe me.”

“Oh, come on, I know your full name now, I can get your 411 easy. Or what? You think you’re too good for me?”

Then Jason smiled, “Not that I wouldn’t like to shack up with you pretty boy, but I’m afraid you’re a bit too late.”

“And why is that?”

“This universe me died right there,” Jason pointed up.

Dick, who hasn’t completely taken the information in, slowly looks up to where Jason is pointing. The top of the Ferris wheel where Dick found Jason bleeding.

Then it hits Dick like a big chunk of iceberg to his Titanic, and his stomach makes a grand fall into the dark depth. He holds himself as if he’s holding his mental state together.

“But I... I turned the Ferris wheel on, and get you out of there and you walked away...” Dick whispered to himself as if saying it will make it real. 

“In another universe, you did save me, but this universe me died there watching the sky. It’s not your fault though, you haven’t got this job yet when he climbed up there.”

Dick can’t look away from the cabin at the top. It felt like a second ago that he talked to that weird boy. Dick spent a whole day as a nervous and excited wreck, looking forward to having breakfast with him and getting to know the story behind his grim smile when he offered it. The thought of him had occupied his thoughts for months. Always thinking that they’ll meet, sooner or later. Even though, there are times when his hope dies down, in the end, his intuition came true in the way he’d never imagine.

To think, Dick never met that boy at all. That he never met his Jason all this time.

“Whatever happened to him, did it happen to you, too?” Dick’s voice as weak as a broken one.

When he looks at the Jason in front of him, he can see his Ferris wheel boy there, holding back a story behind his weak smile.

“Yes.”

He never thought that his Jason and this Jason is the same, he thought the circumstances must’ve been different since his Jason died and this Jason is still here. This doesn’t make that seem that way.

“Did someone saved you?” Dick asked again.

“Luck did. I woke up the next day still alive.”

Dick nods, smiling in relief. “Can I know what happened?”

Jason paused, thinking over it, “Only if you tell me about Kory.”

At the mention of her name, his heart stops for a beat. The memory of her body on their bed, lifeless. Her red hair stark against their olive green sheets, pouring to the floor. Her jade eyes open and empty, like the bottle of her sleeping pills in her hand.

“How... how did you know Kory?”

“You and I were more than friends in my universe,” Jason smirked.

There’s an irk spiked in Dick’s chest, burning, ugly, and weird jealousy, “Then just ask him.”

“My universe’s Dick died before he could tell me,” Jason deadpanned, and Dick was caught off guard by the weight of the words delivered with a tone contrary of that.

It’s not him, but in a way, it is him. And in a way, Jason lost him. Almost like Dick lost his Jason.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago. He had nightmares about her, and never get to tell me who she is.”

“Oh.” Dick still has nightmares of her, sometimes he thinks he’ll come home and find her still sleeping on his bed. She’s the reason he takes the meds in the first place. “I guess that’s fair.”

It feels that he needs to know more about how his other self gets to have a relationship with Jason. Or how he died. He doesn’t even know if Jason’s Dick has the same Kory as him.

It wasn’t the point though, Dick knows that much. He wants to know what happened to Jason because of the same urge that Jason wants to know about Dick’s nightmares. An open wound that needs closure. Any closure.

Jason looks up, his eyes mellow as a soft smile graces his mature face, “Can we go up?”

“I can’t move anything. Everything froze over.

“Don’t worry about that.” Jason closed his eyes and breathes in. Deeply. Then he opened his eyes that were filled with the same blank white light as the Ferris wheel’s portal.

The wind blows shortly, the bent tall tree bounces back to straight, its leaves fall gracefully to the floor. But the clouds still haven’t moved, and the birds far away still frozen in time.

Jason exhales, and the light in his eyes dimmed out slowly, returning the teal and dark circles on his eyes. His lips smirking at Dick who’s half losing his mind and half amazed.

Dick turns the lights on but doesn’t rotate the Ferris wheel. For memories sake, Jason showed him how he climbed to the top. It’s surprisingly easy.

They both sit at the top of the Ferris wheel, their backs against the seat, looking up to the indigo sky as Jason tells his story and Dick tells his. The world around them is forever at dawn. Their eyes are on the sunlight that peeks behind the merry-go round’s roof. Often, they’ll look at each other.

They talk about the things they’ve never told anyone before. Guiltless and shameless, since the world feels to fall deaf to their stories but each other. 

In frozen time, they sit at the top of the Ferris wheel. No one is stopping each other from talking, as if this will be their only chance to come clean with their burdens and sin. So, they stayed and talk as long as they please.

And none of them knows how much time has really passed.

  
  


+++++

Something is different about this amusement park. She can’t point it out, but it just feels foreign to her. One thing for sure is that she’s completely lost. Everyone is taller than her and she can’t see her moms. She’s sobbing but she won’t cry because she’s wearing her Captain Marvel jacket. Today she promised to be good so he can go to this park, so she’ll find a way to find her moms.

Her mama says, when she’s lost she needs to find someone in uniforms and tell them that she’s lost. As the six-year-old girl looks for someone with a uniform, she finds someone entirely different that puts everything else at halt.

A girl that looks just like her. 

Not just anyone that’s wearing the same dress or having the same hair. She looks at the mirror for dress-up often enough that the girl in front of her is –well– her. Like a twin or the exact same copy of her. The other her is wearing a Wonder Woman shirt instead of her Captain Marvel Jacket, and a gold skirt instead of her jeans. But their hair is braided the same favorite way she liked, intertwined with blue ribbons. 

She’s as speechless as her. Of course she is, they’re not staring at a mirror, but at each other! And as far as she knows, she’s not a twin, and she doesn’t have any other siblings yet.

“Callie!” Someone called and the girl in front of her looks back to the source of the voice.

That’s weird. She almost believed that they’re the same person, but her name is not Callie.

The girl named Callie runs towards the direction of the call, leaving her behind.

Being a lost little girl, her first instinct is to follow her copy, hoping to find her moms.

“Hey there! You must be lost.” Someone steps in front of her and she abruptly stops. She looks up to see the extension of the legs in front of her, then finally finds her smile.

It’s a security guard with hair as black and fabulous as Loki but with a friendly face and blue eyes like Captain America. Then a smile and kind eyes, just like a prince.

“Yes! I’m lost, I need to find my moms. I think I need to follow her,” She points to the direction her twin just ran off to, but she disappeared between the crowds already.

The security guy just smiles and bends his knees, “What’s your name, little girl?”

“Amalia.”

“That’s a pretty name, my name is Grayson.”

“That’s a pretty name too.”

“Why thank you!” the man smiles and he looks more handsome than the princes in Disneyland. “Come on, I’ll take you to your moms.” He offers his hand and she eagerly takes his hand.

With the guide of Grayson’s hand, they walk through the crowds. Amalia looks at her surroundings –as her mother always says– and she noticed that they’re walking towards the Ferris wheel.

“Are we not going to the announcement booth?” Amalia asked.

“Nope,” Grayson popped the p.

She doesn’t know when, but as soon as they step closer into the green grass area of the Ferris wheel everything else stops. The people, the music even the birds in the sky. Amalia turns her head wildly to see every little thing that pauses in mid-air and finds it fascinating. Before she knew it, she was already on the platform on the back of the Ferris wheel. There are some frozen people there, exiting the ride and their feet mid-air as they step down the platform.

Amalia finally looks away from gazing at the frozen bee right beside her when a bright light glares from the Ferris wheel. Inside the circle frame of the Ferris wheel filled with opaque white that glows. Amalia has never seen such a thing. Does every Ferris wheel does this?

“You need to go through now Amalia,” Grayson says, “You’ll meet your moms, the right ones.”

That would be great of course because Amalia is starting to miss her moms, but then he looks up to Grayson, and squeeze his hand tightly.

“I’m not going to see you again, am I?”

Grayson smiles like a prince and put his hand on top of her head.

“Maybe you will, but I’m not going to remember ever meeting you.”

“Why is that?”

“Because the me on the other side of this portal hasn’t met you yet.”

She looks around again, to the people that stopped in time, to the big shining portal and the prince beside her.

“This is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me, and no one will ever believe me.” She sighed. She’s going to write this in her diary right, just in case she forgets or thinks she was imagining this.

“I was like you too, it sucked when there’s something happening to you but no one believes you.”

“Right!” she shouts too loud, but her prince just laughed. He’s truly the love destined for her, he’s the only one that doesn’t mind her big mouth.

“I believe that everyone is destined to be with another. No matter how wild the circumstances are. You’re going to find someone just for you, believe me.” Her prince stares into the portal and right then, she knew Grayson is not her prince. His face looks soft and kind when he smiles. He looks like how her mom looks at her mama.

She lets go of his hand in defeat but she won’t give up.

“Did you find someone who believes in you?” She asked.

“Yes,” he answers with a smile showing all his pearly teeth. 

“How did you find them?” Amalia asked.

Grayson looks up to the top of the Ferris wheel with pursed lips. Whatever he’s racking up in his brain, it made him smile.

“I didn’t. He found me.” 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Whaddayathink??
> 
> Open to critics. Comments and Kudos if you like this~
> 
> [find me on tumblr!](https://emotionalcello-makefanfics.tumblr.com/)


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